Posts from 2011 :: Page 3

Celia is in vampire limbo. She hasn’t joined the ranks of the undead, but she’s no longer human. She’s got fangs, a taste for blood, and superhuman strength; but at the same time she’s awake during the day and can withstand sunlight, holy water, and other vampire repellents.

You see, a security job for a foreign prince who wanted to enjoy the night life on a visit to L.A. turned deadly. During the chaos Celia was attacked by an old vampire—and it’s only the oldest vampires who can create new ones—but the process was interrupted. Instead of dying or being turned, Celia became what’s known in vampire circles as an abomination.

But that’s not the worst thing. Her sire plans to finish the job, and she must find and kill him before he does.
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I think I was in third grade when I first learned about river deltas: places where a river empties into a large body of water, slowing from its directed flow into an ever-broadening depository of silt and mass that will, so often, teem with vibrant life. I can’t remember the last time I’d thought about the phenomena that result in such earthy structures, let alone the concept, and yet the analogy between a river delta and this book fit so perfectly to one another that I simply couldn’t deny it.
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Admittedly, I am a fanboy of several things. Steven Erikson novels. Christopher Nolan movies. Jamiroquai. California Pizza Kitchen. The New Orleans Saints. I’ve recently added another author to my fanboy list. Sarah Pinborough. All of you readers will recall how I unashamedly squealed like a little girl in delight over Pinborough’s novel A MATTER OF BLOOD (EBR Review). I loved everything about it. Well I finally managed to read her sequel to that amazing novel, THE SHADOW OF THE SOUL (Amazon).

I loved it!
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TRIO OF SORCERY (Amazon) contains three novellas by seasoned author Mercedes Lackey. She’s known for strong heroines in her YA and Urban Fantasy novels, and the three main characters in TRIO are no exception. Each of the book’s mysteries are shorter stories based on characters from Lackey’s existing series—if you haven’t read any of them, then this would be a good introduction; if you have, at the very least these are an entertaining addition. Lackey’s writing overall is straightforward, with excellent pacing, and storylines with a few twists.
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HOLY CRAP!

What a year for Science Fiction it’s been. I mean we’ve had LEVIATHAN WAKES by James S A Corey that was excellent. China Miéville’s EMBASSYTOWN was weird, wonderful and brilliant. Robert Charles Wilson finished up his Spin trilogy in fine form with VORTEX. And now along comes Vernor Vinge to show us all again how this is really done with CHILDREN OF THE SKY (Amazon).
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Until recently I thought Felix Gilman was associated with the Warhammer 40K books, which I really didn’t think would be for me. So, I never picked up any of his books. Honestly I don’t know what ever put that idea into my head, but a couple of weeks ago an impulse sent me out to check my sources and I found out that Mr. Gilman wasn’t associated with the 40K books at all. Although, one of the main characters of the Warhammer 40K books was named… can you guess? Yup. Felix. I am so ashamed.
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One of my favorite books last year was ROT & RUIN (EBR Review) by Jonathan Maberry. It was a great take on the after-effects of the zombie apocalypse from the eyes of a teenager. It was also a great example of YA well-done–a fast paced story with fun dialogue and a setting that mixed horror and humor well.
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Terry Pratchett. The man’s a living legend, and his Discworld series is one of the few works out there that proves humorous fantasy has a place in this world. At this point, reviewing his books is about as useful as giving a thumbs up to a work by John Grisham, right? So why bother with a review of his latest book, SNUFF (Amazon)?

Plenty of reasons.
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There are times when, as a reviewer, you pick up a book, get about twenty pages into it, and then say, “There’s no way I’m going to finish reading this.” This happened to my illustrious boss, Steve, when he started reading this book. So, he stopped reading it, and then pawned it off on me. [grumble, grumble] You still have to love the guy, though.
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I’ve come to a point in my reading life where I start planning the books I’m going to read well in advance. A new Dresden Files novel in the Spring. New Erikson & Esslemont novels in the Fall/Winter. A new Joe Ledger novel around February/March. Since starting this whole review gig, I’ve added George Mann to my list. For whatever reason, he work always entertains me.
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